After years of unsuccessful efforts to ban Telegram in Russia, local authorities have finally decided to cancel the ban on the major encrypted messenger in the country. Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, also known as Roskomnadzor, has officially lifted the two-year-long ban on Telegram. In an official statement on Thursday, Roskomnadzor said that the authority has removed requirements restricting the access to the Telegram messenger in agreement with the Prosecutor General of Russia. Announcing the news, Roskomnadzor outlined that the regulator commends Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s willingness to confront terrorism and extremism. The …

A major state authority in Russia has objected to the State Duma’s proposal to cancel the ban on Telegram’s encrypted messenger in the country. Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, also known as MinComSvyaz, doesn’t support a recent initiative to lift the two-year-long Telegram ban, local news agency Interfax reports May 26. Russia doesn’t need more services to spread information about COVID-19 On April 22, two deputies at the State Duma proposed a draft bill on terminating the ban of Telegram in Russia due to the coronavirus outbreak. The proposal stipulates that Telegram has become an “official …

As Telegram again delays the launch of its Telegram Open Network (TON) after missing their April 30 deadline, some key players in the crypto industry don’t want Telegram to launch the coin at all. Michael Novogratz, CEO of crypto merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, and one of the biggest Bitcoin (BTC) bulls, expressed a sceptical stance to Telegram’s blockchain and crypto project in an April 30 tweet. Novogratz wants to turn 400 million Telegram users into Bitcoin consumers According to Novogratz, there is no need to launch either another blockchain network or another cryptocurrency. Novogratz, who is confident that Bitcoin will …

After years of unsuccessful efforts to block Telegram in Russia, the country’s government is now considering lifting the ban due to the coronavirus outbreak. According to an April 22 report by Russian news agency Kommersant, two deputies at the State Duma have prepared a draft bill on terminating the ban of Telegram’s encrypted messenger app in Russia. If you can’t beat it, join it In the bill, the State Duma deputies reportedly argued that Telegram has become an “official service” used by state authorities to raise awareness about the measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The officials elaborated that local …

BitBox, the Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange operated by internet messaging giant Line, announced that it will delist XRP on Jan. 16. Cointelegraph Japan reported BitBox’s decision earlier today. The announcement published on the exchange’s website on Jan. 6 read: “We keep a constant watch on all coins that are being traded on BITBOX. If a coin does not meet our standards based on its performance, reliability, liquidity, or law and regulatory requirements, it will be delisted from our exchange. To protect your assets and interests, we provide sufficient notice before delisting.” The crypto asset in question will be delisted at midnight …

London-based decentralized communication startup New Vector has raised $8.5 million to drive adoption for Matrix, a major alternative messaging protocol. Slack rival Riot.IM The Matrix protocol, which enables secure communication via end-to-end encrypted messaging applications such as Riot.IM, an alternative to WhatsApp, Telegram or Slack, will continue scaling and growing its network with the newly raised funds, New Vector announced on Oct. 10. Investors of the New Vector’s Series A funding round included London-based European seed fund Firstminute Capital, cloud computing and Software as a service (SaaS)-focused Notion Capital and enterprise software venture firm Dawn Capital, the firm said. As …

Tim Draper, a famous investor with an estimated crypto net worth ranging between $350 million and $500 million, has joined the board of directors of EOS-based decentralized application (DApp) firm MakeSense Labs. In a news release on Sept. 9, Draper said: “I am excited to support this amazing application. Sense.Chat improves human connections by allowing private, seamless messaging and payments.” A notable investor Per the release, Draper was an early investor in parent company Sensay. Sense.Chat chief technology officer Ben Sigman said: “We are very excited to have Tim’s support and advice. He’s been a massively important and pivotal figure …

A new “feature-rich ecosystem” has been created for privacy-conscious individuals who want to keep their communications confidential and their data secure. The team of networking technology enthusiasts behind Utopia say it wants to create an antidote to a world of total surveillance — delivering a platform that offers freedom, anonymity and no censorship. Utopia has been in development for six years, all with the motivation of building an environment in which “Big Brother” isn’t watching the public’s every move. The team says its decentralized peer-to-peer network enables users to communicate with whomever they want, whenever they want — all while …

South Korea’s Gram Asia is selling rights to its Gram holdings at $4.00 per token starting July 10, according to a report by Bloomberg on July 3. The proposed sale price is triple the original $1.33 sale price at Gram’s second initial coin offering (ICO) round in March 2018. The sale on July 10 is apparently happening exclusively through Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid, as per its website. Liquid also hosted the Gram ICO in March, at which time Telegram raised $850 million, bringing its total valuation up to $1.7 billion. Citing an email from the exchange, Bloomberg reports that users …

Ted Livingston, the CEO of Canadian-based messaging startup Kik, told cryptocurrency news outlet Coindesk that the company spent over $5 million on ongoing negotiations with the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). The news was revealed in a report published on May 16. As Cointelegraph reported at the end of January, the SEC stated that it believes that Kik’s “Token Distribution Event” two years ago violated securities laws when the company raised $97 million during the sale. Following the SEC’s recommendation of an enforcement action in November 2018, Kik was served with a “Wells Notice,” a letter to the company …

Ground X, the blockchain arm of South Korean internet giant Kakao Corp, has announced the launch date of its own blockchain platform, a Cointelegraph correspondent learned at Consensus 2019 on May 13. Per the announcement, the Klaytn mainnet will launch on June 27, 2019, and will purportedly be a major driver of blockchain adoption in the country. Kakao has a 96% market share in South Korea, with a presence in messaging, gaming, content services, financial services and mobility services. Kakao announced its intention of launching a blockchain platform last March, and released a testnet version of Klaytn in October. The …

South Korea’s biggest internet corporation Kakao will reportedly integrate its crypto wallet in its messaging app KakaoTalk, local financial news agency Fnnews reported on March 18. According to the report, more than 44 million South Korean KakaoTalk users will be able send peer-to-peer transactions using Kakao’s crypto-powered wallet. The South Korean messaging giant will reportedly integrate the wallet in KakaoTalk after the launch of blockchain platform Klaytn’s commercial service, a spin-off of Kakao’s subsidiary Ground X. Recently, Bloomberg reported that the company will conduct another $90 million-capped initial coin offering (ICO) after already raising $90 million. According to Fnnews, Klaytn …